People starting new roles with DLA Piper, Peninsula Ireland, ID-Pal, Investec Wealth & Investment, Blueface and Dairygold

Here is a selection of people starting new roles with DLA Piper, Peninsula Ireland, ID-Pal, Investec Wealth & Investment, Blueface and Dairygold.

Matthew Cole has been named as a partner with law firm DLA Piper in its corporate practice in Dublin. He will join the firm at the end of 2020 from A&L Goodbody, where he is a corporate partner. His practice focuses on M&A and equity capital markets (ECM) as well as private equity and corporate advisory. Matthew has led on some of Ireland’s most significant cross-border M&A and private equity transactions over the past five years, particularly in the real estate, insurance and financial services sectors. Matthew’s arrival brings DLA Piper Ireland’s Corporate team to six partners and legal directors including David Carthy, Éanna Mellett, Caroline Kearns, Micheál Mulvey and Edel O’Kelly. Steve Duggan, an equity capital markets specialist, recently joined the team as a senior associate from A&L Goodbody. DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Moira Grassick has been promoted to managing director of Peninsula Ireland, part of the global employment law consultancy Peninsula Group. She will play a pivotal role in the group’s all-island growth goals. She joined the group in 2012 as an HR consultant, and in that time her role has progressed significantly into a senior director position within the group. Last year, in her previous position as associate director of commercial, Moira oversaw a year of growth with strong sales results. This resulted in significant growth plans for the organisation, with job creation and expansion across Ireland, notably in Cork where a new office was opened. Over the past two years, the number of Peninsula employees in Ireland as a whole has ramped up by 10% as the organisation looks to service an ever-growing client base, which currently stands at over 8,463 businesses.

Simon Montgomery has been appointed as chief operating officer with Dublin-based tech company ID-Pal, whose products enable businesses to verify the identity of customers in real-time. He brings over 20 years of financial services experience, notably with AIB and Bank of Ireland, and most recently as senior operations director for UK-based fintech firm Future Finance. Simon holds an MBA from Trinity College Dublin where he graduated from in 2014. Software as a Service (SaaS) developer ID-Pal recently €1m with investments from Act Venture Capital and private investors. Clients include AIB Merchant Services, Elavon, Fexco, HID Global, KYC Global, Mercer, One4all and Sherpa Technologies. They also have active partnerships with Temenos and Salesforce.

Leigh Yeaman has been appointed as divisional director and head of the Belfast Office of financial services firm Investec Wealth & Investment. She takes over from Samuel Brown, following his retirement in September 2020. Leigh joined Investec as an iInvestment director in 2015 and manages portfolios for high net worth private clients, trusts, pension schemes, and corporate entities. She will continue to support her clients while also playing an instrumental role in the direction and growth of Investec’s business in Belfast. In her new role, she will also be putting a special emphasis on belonging, inclusion, and diversity. She has over 20 years of experience in the wealth management sector, having worked in Barclays Stockbrokers in Glasgow, Stirling Hendry (now Brewin Dolphin) in Scotland, before moving home to Northern Ireland in 1999, where she was part of Cunningham Coates Stockbrokers and Quilter, prior to joining Investec in June 2015. In her spare time, Leigh volunteers as a NED on The Bryson Group board.

Gavan Smyth has been appointed as chief executive officer with Blueface, a Comcast business company, the Dublin-based global technology provider of unified communications solutions. Gavan is a former VP of Product and VP of Strategic Marketing with Liberty Global based in Amsterdam where he led the delivery of B2B products and digital marketing strategies to ten operations across Europe. He also led the Virgin Media Business in Ireland for nine years as VP of business services. Previously he held senior roles with OEM and MSP organisations such as Allied Telesis and Fujitsu Services. He has a BA Business & Marketing from University of Ulster and a Diploma in Media from Dun Laoghaire College of Art, Design, and Technology. Alan Foy is stepping down as CEO after 11 years; he will continue as chairman of Blueface while also managing his impact investment VC firm VentureWave Capital.

Pat Clancy has been appointed as vice-chairman of the board of directors with agribusiness Dairygold after a recent election. From Ballyporeen, he has been a member of Dairygold’s board since 2018, general committee since 2008 and regional committee since 2005. His late father Pat was the last vicec-chairman of Mitchelstown Co-op and also served on the board of Dairygold. He is also a director of Munster Bovine Group and Ballyporeen Childcare Community Company Limited. He has a BA, BAI degree in Mechanical & Production Engineering from Trinity College Dublin. Mr. Clancy is married to Carmel and they have a son Seán and two daughters Ellen and Alice. Dairygold also recently appointed Brendan Hinchion, Fintan McSweeney and Martin O’Doherty to the board of the co-op.